1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an icing article, an apparatus for supplying the same, and a method for operating the apparatus.
2. Background Art
It is known that fatigue of overwork muscles by exercises can be easily recovered by cooling them with ice (hereinafter called xe2x80x9cicingxe2x80x9d). General icing method which is carried out at present is to put a required amount of ice manufactured by an ice machine into a bag with water, close its opening with a rubber band to prevent water from leaking, and hold it to a portion to be recovered to cool muscles for recovery. The reason why water is used with ice is to prevent skin from frostbiting clue to the excessive decrease in temperature only by ice. Thus, normally it is used by mixing ice with water.
However, icing which is considered to have an effect for recovering fatigue of overwork muscles is still not popularized. The main factor by which icing is still not popularized is that it is troublesome to prepare a packed ice water each time. Thus, there is a certain need to provide an apparatus for supplying a packed ice water in a simple and inexpensive way.
Further, there is need to prevent icing carried out by means of a bag containing only ice from becoming disorder such as frostbiting.
There is another way to recover muscles by various items for icing which comprise some chemicals received in isolation and use an endothermic reaction by contacting the chemicals with each other when used However, there is a hazard to cause frostbite due to the excessive decrease in temperature. Further, since such an item for icing with chemicals is expensive, it would be useful for medical treatment of a sprain or the like, but is not suitable for daily use for recovery of overwork muscles. Therefore, it has never been used for the purpose of recovery of overwork muscles before being injured.
The present invention has been achieved in view of such problems in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for supplying an ice water-containing bag, comprising ice manufacturing means for manufacturing a required amount of ice, ice packing means for putting the ice manufactured by said ice manufacturing means into a bag having a water resistance; water supplying means for supplying water into said bag; sealing means for sealing an opening of said bag in which ice and water has been put; control means for controlling the respective means to be activated/suspended; and ice-water manufacturing instructing means connected with the control means, for sending an instruction for manufacturing the ice water-containing bag.
According to the present invention, since the ice-water containing bag can be supplied simply by operating the ice-water manufacturing instructing means, one who needs icing can easily and promptly obtain the ice-water containing bag.
Furthermore, the ice-water containing bag supplied by the apparatus according to the present invention can be made cheaper than the icing article using some chemicals and may easily be discarded, and thus it can be used comfortably in a school or the like. In addition, it becomes possible to easily recover fatigue of overwork muscles by exercises by applying the ice-water containing bag according to the present invention, thereby preventing one from being injured due to his fatigue of muscles.
Besides, in the apparatus for supplying an ice water-containing bag as above, a bag keeping section for keeping a plurality of bags may preferably be comprised. Alternatively, the apparatus may comprise bag manufacturing means.
In the apparatus comprising the bag keeping section, there is no need to provide another bag manufacturing means and the apparatus itself may be made smaller in size, On the other hand, in the apparatus comprising the bag manufacturing means, there is no need to buy bags for containing ice water and it becomes possible to reduce a running cost.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method for operating an apparatus for supplying an ice water-containing bag according to any one of the above ones, the method comprising the steps of: placing a bag; putting a predetermined amount of ice into the bag; pouring a predetermined amount of water into the bag containing ice upon receipt of an instruction signal output from an ice-water manufacturing instructing means by operating water supplying means; and closing an opening of the bag by sealing means. According to the invention, since the bag is placed with having already contained ice, the supplement of ice water-containing bag can be achieved more promptly.
Furthermore, still another object of the present invention is to provide an icing article comprising a bag having a watar resistance and a predetermined amount of ice contained in the bag and having a temperature above xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C.
In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for supplying an ice-containing bag for icing, comprising: ice manufacturing means for manufacturing a required amount of ice; ice packing means for putting the ice manufactured by said ice manufacturing means into a bag having a water resistance and sealing the bag; an ice-containing bag storing portion for storing a plurality of ice-containing bag prepared by said ice packing means in a temperature range of xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C.-0xc2x0 C.; discharging means for discharging the ice-containing bag stored in the ice-containing bag storing portion; and discharge instructing means for activating the discharging means to discharge the ice-containing bag.
According to the icing article of the present invention, since the temperature of the ice contained in the bag is made being a temperature above xe2x88x9210xc2x0 C., a part of ice contained in the bag is rapidly melted by flushed body after exercise, thereby providing water in the bag together with ice. After that, body is cooled by water of 0xc2x0 C. via the bag to prevent skin from suffering low-temperature injury, such as frostbiting.